The Shades of Pemberley
by underthestreetlights
Summary: Three times in which Lizzie and Darcy interact at Pemberley. Told in three different POVs in three different arcs. Modern.


i.

Will Darcy is craving coffee. This is odd, because a) he's already had three cups today, and b) he's not really one to _crave_ anything. Well, maybe some things. Maybe some_one_. It's probably because of the late night he pulled reviewing the company's financial reports, he rationalizes.

Fatigue pulls at his back, at his eyes, at his body as he makes his way to the break room before suddenly freezing because_ Elizabeth Bennet_ is standing right there in front of him trying to reach the tea on the highest shelf. It still hasn't quite registered in his mind that she's _here_ at his company for the next six weeks. This may even be worse than those weeks at Netherfield, he thinks, but he still can't wish that she were somewhere else.

His legs carry him forward and he leans over her to grasp the box with ease and she turns to him with a brilliant smile which only slips slightly when she realizes who he is. Progress, he thinks.

"Um, thanks," she says, looking down at the floor.

"You're welcome," he says.

She strains a smile. "Your company… it's amazing. Thanks. For having me here."

"I'm glad that you - like it. Here." God, does every sentence he says to her have to sound like such a badly put together jigsaw puzzle? "How is your family?" he asks tentatively.

"They're… they're great."

"That's… great," he says. "And Charlotte?"

"She's great, too."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that… she's, uh, great."

They really need to get a thesaurus up here, he thinks.

But then she smiles tentatively at him and he forgets about his inability to speak with a vocabulary of a five year old for the moment, and he feels a tiny tug of hope at the strings inside of him. Maybe he's not all lost just yet.

And it's not until he's halfway through the afternoon board meeting that he realizes he'd never actually made that fourth cup of coffee he'd been craving.

* * *

><p>Pemberley's annual Christmas party is the next week and the fourth floor has been decorated into some kind of winter wonderland by the creative department. Will is having an okay time - good, even, for him, that is. Gigi's managed to convince him to let her dress him (not that he really needed that much convincing), being particularly adamant on a forest green tie, and when he asked why, she just smiled and chirped, "It's Christmas."<p>

Fitz and Gigi are dancing a wide circle on the dancefloor in matching clothes - red taffeta for Gigi and an ostentatiously red blazer for Fitz. Will finds himself smiling at the two of them, a good sign he's had a little too much to drink. And he's not even the lightweight.

"My, is that a _smile_, Mr. Darcy?" says a voice beside him, and his mouth goes very dry.

There stands Lizzie Bennet dressed in dark green (he has this epiphany moment, because of course Gigi never does anything without it being carefully planned) and all he can say is, "We match," stupidly staring. The green makes her skin look paler than usual and her hair redder and her eyes greener and it harder for him to look away.

"Gigi," she says, and the look that goes between them explains everything. "Well, I thought I'd just say hi -"

"Would you like to dance?" he blurts, cringing internally.

She pauses and oh God oh God oh God, he thinks. "As long as we don't make a spectacle of ourselves. You know, like that." She gestures at his sister and best friend.

He grins, "I don't think anyone can top them, truthfully."

And they dance. And it's nice and a little awkward but they smile at each other shyly. His arms hold her around her waist and hers wrap around his neck and they sway and all he can do is pray that his dancing skills have improved since their first dance, until she steps a little closer and he finds he can barely think at all.

_"I could tell you that you're all I've ever wanted, dear… I could utter every word you'd ever hope to hear… I shudder when I think that I might not be here forever, forever, forever…"_

_When the songs ends, he's reluctant to let her go but she thanks him for the dance and tells him how amazing his company is. Then she tiptoes and kisses his cheek very quickly and just as fast she's synthesized herself into crowd and she's gone._

Will finds himself cupping his cheek distractedly until Fitz comes and slams him in the back and congratulates him very loudly in front of all his employees. But Will only grins because right now, he just can't bring himself to care.

ii.

Lizzie's first day at work is only mildly terrifying. Mildly. It helps that she's spent time here before, gotten to know some of the people and learned the way around the halls. It also should help that her boyfriend is sitting in his office a few floors up from hers doing whatever it is executive people do - meetings and paperwork, probably.

It should help but it really doesn't; mostly because a) he's pretty much the biggest distraction in her life, and even when he's not here he's constantly and perpetually in her thoughts, b) she's terrified people are going to find out about their relationship, not that she doesn't want people to know, but she wants to be able to earn her place here before they find out, and of course, c) she hasn't physically seen him in three weeks and for some _stupid_ reason she thought it would be a good idea to start work on her first day in this city without seeing him first. And it doesn't help at all the ache in her chest whenever Mrs. Reynolds mentions the name 'Mr. Darcy' - which is unfortunately often.

Looking around now at the spacious ground floor she realizes she's kind of missed this place. After all, it was here that she really began to understand him, to understand herself.

They're led through the halls on the compulsory first day tour when they see him. He's dressed more casually today and Lizzie can see his stupid forearms because he's rolled his stupid sleeves up and he's wearing those stupid suspenders and his stupid smile and it just makes her want to smack him because she wants to kiss him so bad right now. But she can't so she just stares down at her shoes.

"This is Mr. Darcy," says Mrs. Reynolds, "the CEO of Pemberley."

The other three look appropriately intimidated.

"Mr. Darcy, these are Jenna, Ben and Ana, the new employees. And of course you know Elizabeth already."

Lizzie blushes. "I, uh, shadowed here. For my thesis project," she tries to explain.

"Welcome to Pemberley," he says, "I hope you'll enjoy it here." He pauses for a moment and Lizzie can imagine the quirk of his lips because she's still not actually looking at him. "It's good to see you again, Lizzie," he says, voice full of laughter. _How does he have so much self control?_ "Please excuse me, I have a board meeting to get to."

Lizzie gets lunch with her new co-workers. They share stories and facts about themselves and it's nice. They ask how she likes it here in this city (it's great, she says), they ask if she's getting laid and what his name is (Will, she replies, not even blushing because she just misses him so much). Then, of course, the gossiping starts. About their CEO, especially. And how young he is. And how ridiculously attractive he is.

They ask if he's single and she replies no a little too fast, a little too loud. Their eyebrows raise but they don't ask questions.

Then the conversation turns to other things. Well, before he walks into the room, that is.

As he walks past she blatantly checks him out, a hint of her spark jumping out.

And she swears he almost stumbles over his feet and she forces herself to contain her laughter. Ana looks over at her with wide eyes. I think he saw you, she says.

Sometime later they're working when Lizzie is told that Mr. Darcy wants to see her and they're all looking at her with wide eyes because she is going to _get it_. But her pulse thrumming in her neck and her chest and her wrists has nothing to do with that.

The door opens. Miss Bennet, he says with his goddamn poker face.

Mr. Darcy.

And then the door is shut and they're laughing against each other's lips and _this is how it's supposed to feel_. Her fingers tug on his tie and he backs her towards his desk, kissing the whole time. He lifts her up and she wraps her legs tight around his waist and they're smiling too hard to kiss properly.

This is hardly proper behavior for the CEO of Pemberley, she manages to choke out as he sucks on the skin on the side of her neck. Then, Will, she says. It's a gasping needy sound.

I missed you, he says and all further communication is effectively ended as he slides his hands underneath her blouse and yes, this is how it's meant to be.

iii.

"Over there is our CEO, William Darcy," says the tour guide, a chirpy girl in her early twenties, gesturing to the man striding through the doors, looking somewhat tired, pushing his hand through his dark hair and running his palm over the stubble on his cheek. "He's just returned from a two week business trip in Japan," she explains.

They walk over to the adjacent information desk. "Over here you'll get your employee passes which will enable you to use the elevators, like so," she demonstrates. "And there," she points at the other side of the floor, maybe twenty feet away, where a woman is standing, "is our foyer café for all your morning caffeine needs."

They walk a little closer and their guide explains that the woman is "Liz- Elizabeth Bennet", and that she is the head of the department they're going to be working for.

They're about to approach when the woman turns around with a radiant smile, says 'Will", and practically launches herself into the arms of a man - the CEO, in fact. He drops his travel case and picks her up easily, swinging around a full revolution. They're laughing and turning and to be honest, a bit of a spectacle but from the fact that no one seems overly surprised, this is apparently somewhat of a regular occurrence. Their tour guide is grinning in a way which could only be described as bordering on manic hysteria.

I missed you, he says, or something like that - they can't really hear from the 'awww's their guide is emitting.

I missed you too, says the woman, leaning up to kiss him, one hand around his neck, the other pulling on his tie. His arms find their way around her waist and nobody seems particularly fazed at their CEO and the head of some department making out in the middle of the foyer.

"She used to hate him, you know," says their guide, company history abandoned, instead focusing on the romantic life of their chief executive officer, "and now they've been engaged for a month!" They can't help but be a little concerned over her intense interest in that relationship.

Then the barista calls that the woman's coffee order is ready and they break apart, only a trace of embarrassment in their smiles.

She grabs her coffee with one hand and the man's with her other and they make their way over to the elevators until they notice the tour group.

Gigi, says Mr. Darcy, smiling at their guide.

She beams at him. "These are your newest employees; I'm reclaiming my position as guide for today."

"I can see that. Welcome to Pemberley, I hope you enjoy your time here." He shakes each of their hands. "I understand you'll be working for Lizzie?" His wide smile at the woman somewhat juxtaposes his stiff business attire; her smile reflects his equally.

They learn later on the tour (after Darcy and Lizzie have gone their separate ways, and with a slight interruption when they find the napping pods, because seriously, who can concentrate when there are napping pods around?) that Lizzie used to hate Darcy and that it definitely hadn't gone very well for him when he'd declared his love for her a) whilst insulting the rest of her family, b) in the middle of her broadcasting her hate for him in front of the entire world, and c) before they'd gone on a single date. But that's all in the past now.

Later, they're settled in their new department and Miss Bennet has hardly spent a whole minute at a time in her own office, instead, walking about, supervising their work. Until their tour guide (Gigi, they learn her name is) bounces in and drags Miss Bennet off to the side.

"Lizzie," she says, "Fitz has an… emergency and I have to go, uh, help him, so I won't be able to go out to lunch with you today." Here, she pouts convincingly, short dark hair bouncing in contrast to the sad expression arranged on her face. "Anyway," she continues, "my big brother is exercising his boyfriend, no, _fiancé_ duties and taking you instead."

(Well, at least that's explained - the CEO is her brother, so perhaps her interest in his personal life is not_ that_ weird.)

Lizzie smiles with a hint of exasperation. "You know you really don't need to do this anymore, right?"

"I know," she grins, "but for old time's sake. Bye, Lizzie!"

Lizzie rolls her eyes but her lips quirk in spite of it.

Later, when Darcy drops by just before their lunch break, they look at each other like there's no one else in the world in the worst and most cliché way possible, but it doesn't matter because they're just so happy.

* * *

><p>The lyrics are from All I Ever Wanted by The Airborne Toxic Event, which I don't own, obviously. I also don't own Pride and Prejudice or The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, just so you know.<p> 


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